PC-3000 software has been supplemented with numerous significant and helpful features. The list of supported HDD families has been considerably extended. A lot of new forensic features have also appeared in the latest software release.

By updating your PC-3000 software, you will be able to enjoy the newest features and enhancements.

When preparing this release, we took a special approach. We have made this release larger and more comprehensive than the previous ones, as we planned to provide the owners of the old "green" PC-3000 UDMA with the maximum volume of useful features.

Starting from the 1st of January 2016, no software updates will be available for the old “green” PC-3000 UDMA. All further software updates will be provided only for the new product line of the PC-3000. You can upgrade your old tools to the new PC-3000 products till the 31st of December 2015.

DETAILED LIST OF ENHANCEMENTS

For PC-3000 Express, UDMA-E, UDMA, Portable

WD Marvell

The "ROM Build from SA Data" mode has been completely changed

It has become possible to read data from Self Encryption Device HDD and to decrypt data automatically

Dir address editing for all copies has been added in the "SA Regions Editor" mode

The "Max" button error has been fixed, which used to occur when track defects were added through the defect editor

The following commands have become available in the "Execute" menu: - Block SA Access; - Init HDD SA Access; - Allow SA Access and Restart;

The Dir compiling mechanism for the search\edit results has been improved for the "Modules Search in SA" and "Dir Editor" modes

After finding a module in the "Modules Search in SA", you can now add it from the search list to Dir

In the "Modules Search in SA" mode, you can now save Dir as a file and write it into RAM

Module writing as a static has become possible

In the "Dir Editor" mode, you can now save Dir as a file and write it into RAM

The "region shifting" mechanism has been improved

The "View and Edit HDD Resources" has the following improvements: - The "ROM Map" and "RAM Map" functionality for the RAM ranges reading - The processing of "next" and "previous" buttons during the ABA ranges reading - If module reading is interrupted, the part of module which has already been read is uploaded into the editor

All SA copies are now checked during the SED key searching. Keys are checked for full binary matching. If there there is no matching, the key is added as a new one

In the "Donor Search" mode, it has become possible to save the search report

WD Caviar Cyl32 (SATA)

S.M.A.R.T. clearing procedure has been improved

Seagate F3

In the past, a deadlock used to arise when power was turned off/on during terminal process. Now this deadlock has been fixed

Loader creation via terminal has been improved (when System Files information is available)

In 'Work with SA' -> 'Work with System Files', a new option has appeared for working with a part of a file. This option has two parameters: Offset(bytes), Size(bytes)

A new tool has been introduced, which helps to hide the groups of mini-zones of a drive (up to the drive head) via the NonResident G-List plugin

ROM ID 0xBF (SST / SANYO) is supported

The auto-initialization utility has become available for the Kahuna family

In 'Work with SA' -> 'Work with RAM', a new option has appeared for reading/writing via the terminal using the +/-/= commands

Seagate

The 'Safe Mode' procedure is improved

Toshiba

The "Zones and Heads Inactivation" mode has been added

The MG04ACA family is supported now

The defects hiding algorithm has been improved

The grouping defects to tracks procedure has been improved

The "Physical scan" test has been improved, HDD cache control option has been added ("Look Ahead")

For the 29GSG, 55GSX, 55GSXN families, the access to SA via SATA has become much easier

In the "LBA -> CHS" mode, it has become possible to select the commands: "LBA->CHS", "PBA->CHS", "LBA->PBA"

Samsung

When reading data in Data Extractor, you can now use the active Samsung utility actions

The "Work with Service Area - Table of Zone Translation" test has been replaced by a much more powerful "Tools - Utility Extensions - Disabling of Zones and Heads" tool

It has become easier to handle the situations when the modules table of a drive is on the first track of the service area

For the N3 family, an alternate parser of Zone allocation table has been implemented

It has become easier to handle the situations when the capacity was not changed after editing the PARAM_DM module (because the Max LBA value was set in the PROFILE module)

It has become possible to automatically switch into the "DBG>" mode and back while reading the ROM, which has made this procedure much more stable

In the "Donor Search" mode, it has become possible to save the search report

In the SA and ROM reading modes, you can now control the presence of the files where the data is saved

WD (all), Toshiba, Maxtor

In the SA and ROM reading modes, you can now control the presence of the files where the data is saved

Universal utility PC-3000 AT

It has become possible to save the parameters of the reading/writing tests in the universal utility

The 'Choose Another Profile' and 'Rename Profile from Disk ID' commands have been added

Digital signature of the PC-3000 Kernel and the installation utility has been added

Automatic saving of the Log and Terminal Log has become possible for all utilities

For the PC-3000 Express & UDMA-E boards, additional optimization of reading/writing operations in the UDMA mode has been implemented. Reading/Writing speed has been increased by more than 5 MB/s

For the PC-3000 Express & UDMA-E boards, additional changes have been made to the UDMA protocol to show the transitional states of HDD/SSD on the lower Status/Error register panel. The new DMA RQ indicator has been added

It has become possible to choose SATA mode (SATA-I/SATA-II) and PIO Mode (0..4) for PC-3000 Express & UDMA-E boards. This feature is helpful for working with old HDDs that may work unstable in the SATA compatibility mode or may fail to support the PIO4 mode

Win7 Disk (for PC-3000 Express, PC-3000 UDMA-E and PC-3000 Portable)

The HDDs that are connected to the PC-3000 ports can now be mounted into the operational system due to the new driver. In case of a crash of a PC-3000 process, the drive turns off automatically

Data Extractor

New methods of LVM metadata scanning have been introduced. It is now possible to view the LVM segments of all versions

New browser of disk and file structures has been implemented. The browser database contains a variety of disk managers, file systems and different types of files

The VHDX virtual disks are supported now and it is possible to recover the damaged sectors of VHDX metadata from the Log

Virtual disk type autodetection has been added

It has become possible to save all the marked files and folders for several partitions (the "Save marked files" menu item was removed. Instead, a dialog window is displayed when you click on the "Save" option)

The following forensic formats are now supported: *.E01; *.aff; *.s01; *.001. Disk and partition images can be used as a data source and can be recovered even if they are located on a damaged drive: - It is possible to create a task based on disk and partition images in *.E01;*.aff;*.s01;*.001 formats; - A disk or a partition can be exported into a selected format (*.E01;*.aff;*.001); - A virtual disk can be created based on the file images which are stored on an HDD.

It has become possible to make a "snapshot" of the file system based on metadata integrity

The opportunity to work with non-LBA (CHS-only) drives has been added

HDDs with the sector size other than 512 bytes can now be mounted into the operational system

The "Recalculate statistics" mode has been added to the main “Statistics” menu

For the “Loss of Readiness” and “Reading Error” tabs, a new procedure has been added for the “Pause" button

It has become possible to delete a file when copying has been cancelled

It has become possible to save a copy of task parameters into the "!BackUp" folder and to recover the task from this copy

Enhancements for file systems: - NTFS. In the “Search Structures”, a new method of clusterization start detection has been added. It significantly improves the quality of data recovery in complicated cases; - NTFS. The procedure of encrypted files saving has been changed. Earlier, such files could not be saved. Now a file is saved in the encrypted form and also a copy is saved with the '$100' attribute; - FAT. Partition analysis and FAT tables recovery are now based on the legends of decrypted sectors and sectors read by the utility.

RAW recovery mode: - New LVM structures and methods of maps creation have been added; - New fields (name and possible dates) are displayed in the RAW recovery results; - The RAW recovery results can now be grouped by subcategories; - It has become possible to create a virtual file system based on the RAW recovery results.

Explorer mode: - For virtual file systems based on data analysis or "snapshots”, it has become possible to sort files by date and type; - Free space control in the process of data saving has been added; - Different options are now available during data saving after the required space is calculated. The process is terminated if the disk space is overloaded; - When folders and files are saved, all dates can be set now (not only the creation date);- After the marked files are saved, it has become possible to remove the marks.

RAID Edition

In the “Create RAID” form, it has become possible to choose the polynomial for data recovery based on RS blocks

It is possible to quickly mark a RAID member as a missing (dummy) disk

The RAID map legend can now be built based on the legends of RAID members

Autodetection of RAID parameters based on LDM metadata has become possible in case of GPT partitioning

New "Structures" tab. It increases the efficiency of interactive RAID detection and enables to determine the RAID parameters based on the analysis of file types

For PC-3000 SSD

Samsung SSD

The 840 EVO family is now supported

The following enhancements have been made for the 470 and 830 families: - Improved translator building algorithms; - New loaders added; - Apple SSD of the the 470 and 830 families are now supported.

The following enhancements have been made for the 840/840 PRO/840 EVO families: - Improved loader algorithms; - Improved algorithm of checking and reading memory chips in the loader; - Improved algorithm of memory chips reading in the utility; - Support of the 512 Gb drives (840/840 PRO); - Capability of hardware decryption for reading by logical sequence; - Improved algorithm of translator building for the 840/840 PRO family drives.

General changes of the utility: - Loader type can now be selected manually; - Memory chip information has been added into the "Utility Status" menu; - The window of family selection has been changed. Now the family can be selected by microprogram version and controller type.